by Zoe Parker
So far, her visit is highly disappointing. Other than the magic protecting the place, the rest is rather mundane. The books are just that, books. There aren’t any dark and mysterious magical objects littering the place. All she sees is that the decorator has bad taste in art. Most of it is old and bad. A lot of it is comprised of bearded men–sorcerers, she imagines–wielding lightning or fire and rescuing hordes of beautiful women.
Sorcerers are strong, there are no doubts about that, but not all–not even most of them–can use elements like that. Although to see it would be amazing. The sky flashing with the rage of a thunderstorm. The hero standing tall, grabbing a bolt with his hand like some god and sending it into the face of his enemy. She shakes her head, and the dreamy smile on her face falls away. She has to stop reading romance novels.
She reads through the first book quickly. Skimming through the more mundane facts that are well known about mages. She looks up at Voss several times to see what he’s doing and will swear on a stack of bibles that at one point he’s napping with his eyes open. Devil isn’t faring any better, he’s passed out in the middle of the table, his tongue moving around in his mouth while he mutters in his sleep.
Shaking her head at both of them she goes back to reading. When she reaches the end of the book, there’s a tinge of disappointment, but she still has another book. She’s less hopeful as she reads through it, slowing down when she gets to parts that she’s unfamiliar with.
Still, nothing pertaining to the reason for her trip here.
“Sorcerers never change. Even the librarian, one of the lowest castes, is an arrogant asshole,” Devil comments, coming out of his hiding spot.
“They have no respect for anyone, especially shifters,” Voss adds, his blue eyes on the bent back of the librarian.
“At least they didn’t create you. You have that going for you,” Devil muses.
“Did they create sin eaters, you think?” Sora asks, flipping idly through the pages.
“No. Sin eater origins are a mystery even to them. There are a lot of rumors, though, some of which you’ve heard.” She nods. “I’ve always wondered if it was an accident of magic or maybe a god that everyone has forgotten about. Who knows?” Sora’s relief is palpable. The idea of being created and controlled by those soggy pants bastards leaves a bad taste in her mouth. A zing of sympathy moves through her for those that were created by the sorcerers.
Thinking of the constructs moves her eyes to Devil. He knows a lot about things that most don’t. Some things lost in obscurity. Why doesn’t he just tell her everything he knows? Is it some misguided way to protect her? It sounds like something he’d do. Overcomplicate something that doesn’t need to be that way.
When a silent servant, their face hidden in a cowl, brings them water and stale-looking crackers, all three of them barely glance at the offering before dismissing it. Something smells wrong with it. They’re probably poisoned or spelled with something unknown and it’s best not to take the chance.
Sora decides that she’s going to find out more about sorcerers, and Devil is the one who’s going to tell her. But first, she needs to find out what the Father person and his cult of murderous idiots are up to.
“Sora,” Voss says.
“Hmm?”
“What’s a simple fact about you?” She looks up at him, frowning. What in the world?
“Isn’t everything already in that file you have on me?” He shrugs and asks again. “I like pumpkin bread and apple cider together.” Two boring facts that should pacify his sudden interest in asking her personal questions, however silly.
“Exciting stuff,” Devil comments.
“Yes, actually. It tells me that she likes fall.” Surprised, Sora looks up from the book again. It’s accurate and doubtful that it’s in the file she knows he has. “From watching her, I also know that she doesn’t like coffee as much as tea, but drinks both. She also tears the crusts off her sandwiches and eats it first. Quirky but cute.” Sora grimaces. Seriously?
She focuses on the book again to distance herself from where he’s heading with his quirky but cute bullshit. When she gets to something interesting, she tells Voss and Devil.
“Magic stealing is a basic spell that all mages are taught as soon as they’re tested for compatibility with magic. Something we all know. It’s how they get their magic, to begin with. The thieves. However, it goes on to talk about a transference spell and how transferring it burns the mage out incredibly fast. It halves their lifespans each time they do it.” She keeps reading. “I didn’t know that normal magic stealing spells cost minutes of their lives.”
“That means that all of the mages working with the rogue sin eaters have countdowns on their lives. Do you think they’re aware of it?” Devil asks.
“Who knows. Maybe they don’t care, giving their lives for their cause,” Voss answers.
“Does it say anything about a way to block it, to stop it before they kill the person?” Devil asks, looming closer to the book.
She hurries and reads further, looking specifically for an anti-spell. Her eyes widen when she finds something. “Actually, yes.” She looks up at Voss. “The blood of a true alpha or a construct.”
“As much as I want to end this, I’m not prepared to be the sacrificial lamb.” Not that she expected him to, but at least he’s honest about it.
Chuckling, she says, “A drop is all that’s required, Voss, not a pint. It’s a spell, not a blood bank.”
“Can you memorize it?” Voss asks, looking around the empty room that feels like it’s full of people.
“She doesn’t need to. I can.” Devil, like other guardians, has this weird ability to memorize any spellcraft. Proving another reason for their importance.
She turns the pages for him, letting him work his magic, and when they’re finished, they leave, passing the librarian who gives them the stink eye. As the door starts to close behind them, Sora looks over her shoulder to meet the eyes of the librarian and, with a saccharine-sweet smile, flips him the bird. She won’t be returning to this place again. They offer no real help. The only reason she found the anti-spell is pure luck.
At the hotel, Voss sneaks another quick kiss and whispers, “There are lists of properties for sale that are shifter owned. Feel free to browse them and use your friends and family discount. I’ll have Tony email them to you.” Then he’s gone, leaving behind the smell of deep caves and pine.
As she’s closing her door, she looks at Devil. “Are you sure there aren’t any listening spells and such?” He looks around the room and then smiles.
“This isn’t a spy movie, Sora,” he teases.
“Check anyway.” He does to make her happy and when he comes into her bedroom after she’s showered, he’s sporting a mix of guilt and anger on his face.
“I found one behind the TV, but I don’t think it’s the shifters. It reeks of sin eater.”
“Not a spy movie, huh?” He rolls his eyes at her but doesn’t argue. “How did they get someone in here to plant it?” This concerns her greatly. That means there is no safety for her here any longer and explains her sudden desire to move.
“Money moves mountains, Sora. Shifters are no different than any other greedy asshole.” He looks around the room. “We should find that house now, huh?” She laughs, and they bundle up on the bed to go through the email that arrived within minutes of Voss’s departure.
The next morning, she oversleeps and skips her workout and has to hurry to get ready for work. She’s thankful she has a car now, or she’d never make it in time. Walking and trying to get her shoes on at the same time, she grabs her phone off the charger and glances down at it. There’s a text notification from her bank.
Juggling her bag and the electronic key to lock the room, she tries to read the message. It’s a deposit notification. Her bag hits the ground with a thump when she sees how much was deposited. Before she can fully absorb this unbelievable news, her phone rings. The number is displayed as unknown, but sti
ll in a state of shock, she answers it.
“Hello?”
“Miss Suen, my name is Martha Halbrook, I’m calling as a representative of the sin eater council. I do apologize for the sudden call, but I wanted to verify that you received the compensation for your ordeal with Father John.”
Sora can’t believe they actually did something about it.
“If you mean the number with all the zeroes behind it, then yes.” Six of them, in fact.
“Is it adequate to keep this out of the court system?” She’s tempted to say no but doesn’t. Sora is many things and might even eat too many slices of pizza sometimes, but she’s not greedy for money. Settling this now will also put this mess far behind her.
“Yes.”
“Very well. I also want to reassure you that the shameful former priest has been dealt with and will trouble you no further. Please consider your missing wages to be paid in full, and hopefully, one day, you will return to the church with a forgiving disposition.” The line clicks as it disconnects, and Sora blinks at Devil when he bumps her shoulder.
“What is it?”
She brings up the bank deposit message and shows him. “Holy shit, Sora. Where the hell is that from?”
“The council.” She pinches herself in case she’s still dreaming and when it stings, smiles. It’s more than enough money to buy a house and have solid savings. Way more than enough. Technically, she doesn’t even need to work anymore. At least, for Hank. But she enjoys it too much to stop.
“Those fuddy-duddy bastards actually did something, I’m amazed.” He takes the room key and locks the door. “This takes a lot of stress out of house hunting. You’re no longer locked down by a loan cap. Once we get our own place, we won’t have to worry about people bribing their way into our house. We can even afford to get a blood ward put up. Voss won’t be able to get through that one uninvited.” He sounds excited about it for the first time, and that gets Sora moving again.
In the elevator, she asks, “Do you still not like the guy?” Spending time with him has warmed her up towards him a bit. She enjoys his company and wants Devil to reconsider his opinion of him.
“It isn’t that I dislike him, it’s that I don’t like him for you.” He sounds worried.
“Because of Max and the whole shifter-soulmate thing?”
“It’s because he’s the shifter, Sora. You don’t want to be with him either, so there’s no reason to bust my balls because I think it’s a bad idea.”
A seam of rebellion rises in her. “Not your choice to make, though, is it?” Not that she has any intention of being with Voss anytime soon. There’s no guarantee that it will ever happen, but it is her choice to make. Friends are supposed to be a support system, not a boss.
“This is giving me flashbacks of when you first started seeing Max. Stop taking your frustration out in the wrong places,” he chides.
The truth hits her hard; he’s right. She runs a hand down her face. “Sorry, Devil. I don’t know what got into me there.” But she kinda does. Old habits are hard to break sometimes.
He sighs, and his face softens. “Can you honestly say you’d be happy with him?”
“He’s hot, rich, charismatic, funny, intelligent, powerful…” Controlling, overbearing, too well-known, fickle in his love life, prone to make choices for everyone.
“Yes, he’s all those things, but he’s also that mental list you made in your head. The one that makes you continuously hesitate and fight your own desire for him.” He knows her too well, but it’s something she appreciates about him.
She wraps her arm around him, pulling him close to her. “Maybe I just want to play in his pool a time or two, Devil. No one said I have to keep him.” Devil laughs, giving her the result she desired.
“I’ve corrupted you,” he says on a laugh.
“A little.” When the elevator doors open on the first floor, she pauses and looks down at him. Thinking suddenly of what she meant to do the night before and forgot. “When we get home, I want to go through the apartment again to make sure we don’t have some hidden company. I want to go through that file Mario gave us.”
“Shit. I forgot about that with all the excitement going on.”
“Well, when we get a house, this won’t be a concern anymore. Something I want to fix as soon as possible.” It’s become a necessity instead of just a desire.
“Finding one you like will be the longest part of it,” he teases.
“We like it. The decision isn’t just mine to make. This will be our home for a very long time to come. Both of us need to be happy there.” As they step out into the chilly morning, Devil falls on the ground dramatically.
“Aw, right in the feels!” He looks up at her. “Does this mean we’ll be taking all our baths together now?”
“Perv.”
“Hey, it was your idea. What’s that say about you?”
She opens her mouth to argue then snaps it shut. He’s right, completely and utterly right.
What does that say about her?
Chapter Ten
The texts from Voss start later that afternoon. The first one is of Tony yawning, and Voss drew a dick on the picture right in front of his mouth that says, I’m coming in hot. She sends a reply threatening to tell Tony and Voss’s reply expresses exactly how concerned he is about her tattling.
His response makes her snort. So? For all we know, he might like it.
The immaturity and humor they share throughout the afternoon and evening surprises her about the alpha. She’s never sure which way to take him because he constantly shows her a new side of himself. This one, she facepalms, and laughs at a few times. When the texts stop, she figures he’s gotten busy and pockets her phone.
Her workday went by relatively quickly and her excitement to get home and look through the file is enough to motivate her to get home without any pit stops. They order dinner from the hotel, and after cleaning up and getting ready for bed, she makes them popcorn, and they open the file for the first time.
It takes her several minutes to realize what she’s looking at, but when she does, she smiles. It’s a money trail. In a world full of magic, something as trivial as money might lead them to the answers they seek.
Organizing receipts, bank payments, and properties in separate piles, she starts looking for threads for the same person. Putting together pieces of a puzzle that will take time and more investigation. She doesn’t know any of the names, and other than a cursory internet search has no way to know more. For that, she’ll need Hank and Voss. But she can at least have them ready to show them.
There is one solid commonality in them all. All the bank deposits started the same month a year ago, all within minutes of each other. As she keeps digging and reading each paper top to bottom, she finally gets another solid lead. Mixed in with the payments from various companies, all of which are fakes–she looked them up–are payments from a company named Dirt Eaters.
It’s a play on words that’s a slander against sin eaters.
An old one that isn’t used much anymore, but her grandpa explained what it was to her when she was called that many years ago–by a mage, no less.
“That’s their home base. I’m not sure whether it’s genius for naming it that or stupid. They had to know someone would figure it out.” Devil looks through the list she’s written. “Do you think it’s a mistake?”
“I don’t think they expected anyone to connect these people, Devil. They’re on social media, and some of them aren’t what I’d call criminal types at first glance. Like this guy,” she points at one of the names on the list, “he’s a school bus driver, Devil. And this woman is a barista. This guy is a mechanic.” She goes down the list naming their jobs. “We need more information on these people. I’m not even sure what kind of supernaturals they are.”
“That’s the thing about movements like this. They all look normal until they murder someone. Look at that mage Sam, did he look like a serial killer?” She shakes her head.
“Exactly. That’s how they fly under the radar and get away with it so long. Going unnoticed allows them to recruit, plot without being caught.”
“Well, they’re killing people now, and that draws attention to them.”
“Because they’re at the next stage of whatever bullshit plan they have. This spell they’re trying to do, wrong more than likely, is a slow one. It’s not something they can do overnight or even in a year. That gives us some time.”
“Doesn’t help the people they’ve already killed or are possibly killing now.” Deaths she feels guilt for. She shouldn’t, and she knows it, but that doesn’t stop it from happening. It’s not that she thinks she could save them all. Her knowledge of all of this is still new, and she’s only one person and an inexperienced one at that. It’s that she feels empathy for how they died. That it’s her kind killing them.
Sin eaters falling into insanity deliberately: torturing, raping, even murdering innocent people. It’s unheard of and yet now a reality, and not just one or even two. Potentially dozens. The more they kill, the more they’ll want to kill until it consumes them entirely. Stopping them isn’t easy for regular shifters and humans. Not with them protected by mages and sorcerers.
That’s where she can actually do something to help. She can go toe to toe with another sin eater. That doesn’t always mean she’ll win, but it’s a chance she’s willing to take. She has a better chance than most of taking one alive, if Voss can keep him or her that way. He didn’t have the best luck with Sam.
She pulls at the hair just above her ears in frustration, letting that small bite of pain pull her out of her annoying looping thoughts.
This network is becoming so vast she has no idea how they’re going to weed everyone out. They’re in every profession, every area. The file contains hundreds of names. Hundreds of potential enemies. She already knows that there are members of every supernatural branch. From every living income class, from homeless to rich. The Father has his fingers in every pot, and she’s starting to see that he’s worked on this for a long time. Years.
